One evening more than a week ago, I’m sitting on the couch, sipping a glass of wine, engrossed in a Netflix movie, when my husband exclaims something from the kitchen – something that sounded like “cat” or was it “bat”?
“What?” I yell back.
He comes in grumbling about us having too many animals, and that there is a bat in the kitchen. Ducking reflexively, I may have shrieked, “Alive or dead?”
“I didn’t check its pulse,” he answered, deadpan. “The cat’s got it.”
Ugh, that’s a job for me, then. If the bat had flown or been found in the house without a feline or canine companion, I probably could have made a case for it being his job to deal with. But if it has to do with “my” cats or dogs, I’m up.
I like bats, and appreciate their mosquito-eating skills. But I like them in the sky, where they belong, not in my kitchen. Fortunately for me, not so much for the bat, this one was dead – and perhaps dead for a while. The cat who brought it in didn’t look very interested in it, and I couldn’t see any wounds or blood on it. I used a Ziploc bag to pick it up, sealed the bag, and washed my hands. I then looked the cat over for wounds or bites. I didn’t see any.
I was at my local animal shelter a month or so ago, picking up or dropping off one litter of foster puppies or another, when I overheard a discussion regarding rabid bats. My ears pricked up when I heard the name of the street I live on. Elbowing my way into the conversation, I learned that in the past two months, there have been two bats found in homes – both within blocks of my house – which were tested and found to have rabies. So, first thing the next morning, I called my local animal control officer, and asked what I should do. I was advised to bring the vaccination records for the cat, and the bat, to my local shelter; the bat would be tested by our county’s public health department for rabies.
I started looking through my animals’ health records, to check on all of their vaccinations. Wouldn’t you know it? Somehow, all the dogs, and the other cat, were perfectly current on their rabies vaccines. The cat in question, though, hadn’t had a rabies vaccine for three years – and she’s only had one. How had I screwed that up? (Well, there’s an answer; she was sick the last time I brought her and her brother to the vet; he was well and got vaccinated, and I was supposed to bring her back but had forgotten to do so. Bad owner!)
I called the officer back with this news about the cat’s rabies vaccination status, and was told to add my cat to the list of things I needed to bring to the shelter. Because her rabies vaccine was not current, she would have to be quarantined until the results of the bat came back – negative, we hoped.
My shelter was doing me a favor in quarantining the cat. Ordinarily, a person would have to board the cat at a veterinary office that provides quarantine services. But given that I’ve been fostering puppies for the shelter at my office/house (two blocks away from where I live) nearly nonstop since November, the shelter director said they would quarantine (and vaccinate) the cat for me.
The good news: The bat’s rabies test came back negative.
The bad news: My cat picked up a mild upper respiratory virus at the shelter. When I picked her up and drove toward home, she sneezed nearly nonstop. I decided I would keep her at my office/house until she felt better, so she wouldn’t bring the virus home to her brother and my neighbor’s cats. (She spends a lot of time in my neighbor’s yard, which drives me crazy because she is fat from eating from the trough of cat food they keep outdoors. I have begged them to discourage her from hanging out over there, but they like her.)
When my cats were younger, I kept them at my office/house a lot. They actually got to the point where they would jump into my car with my dogs for my two-block commute, hang out with us all day, and then load up again for the evening commute home. But since we started renting out bedrooms to students attending a local trade school, and one student was allergic to cats, I stopped bringing the cats to work. Currently, I don’t have any of the rooms rented, and though it had been a few years since she had been here, my cat settled right down on the sofa and went to sleep.
I had a litter box in the garage, from when my sister-in-law brought a neighbor and her cat to stay here during a forest fire evacuation last summer. I brought it out, filled it with fresh litter, and put it in the kitchen. I put food and water for the cat on the pass-through between the kitchen and the living/dining room, the best spot to keep the dogs from eating it.
We spent the day peacefully. The cat has smacked my puppy, Woody, a few times for being too curious or moving too quickly through a room in which the cat was sitting (she’s a harsh ruler), and though he was excited to see her after a few days apart, she raised her paw to him once and he settled right down again. They even napped on the loveseat in my office (it’s pretty much just for pets) in the afternoon.
That evening, I was working at my computer when I heard a noise I couldn’t place. Then I identified it as the sound of the cat in the litter box. But the cat was still asleep on the loveseat. I looked around, counting heads. Woody was missing. “WOODY!”
He came ambling in from the kitchen – with cat litter stuck all over his nose. ACK!! My cats are indoor/outdoor cats, and they don’t ordinarily use a litter box, and even when I did have an indoor-only cat, I’ve never had a dog who snacked from a litter box! But now I do!
Because I’ve had so many foster puppies, I’ve invested heavily in exercise pens and baby gates. I can keep the litter box gated away from Woody, but accessible to my sneezy cat, until she’s well enough to go home again. I’ll just have to step over it a dozen times a day.
While my cat and I were super lucky that the bat wasn’t rabid, and cat-poop-snacking isn’t the worst behavior a dog can learn, I still really, really wish I hadn’t failed to keep one of my pets’ rabies vaccines current. It all could have been avoided: the quarantine, the feline upper respiratory virus, the horror of coprophagia. Don’t be like me!
When I first saw the adolescent canine who was to become my darling dog Otto, in my local shelter in June 2008, his cage card warned “Kills chicken” – an endearing typo that evidently meant he had either killed a chicken, or makes a habit of killing chickens. There is no way to know what was meant by that now, but the fact is, I brought home three adult laying hens in late 2010, and after a single warning to Otto (No! Off!), he’s been completely trustworthy with the birds, even when they are loose and walking around the backyard, something I allow them to do mostly in the winter, after our summer vegetable garden is done.
He made a predatory move toward a chicken one time in the eight years I’ve shared with him. Our next door neighbors have six or so hens, one of whom got in the habit of flying over the fence into our backyard (tiring of having to rescue her frequently, they eventually rehomed her). She miscalculated and flew into our chicken pen once, and my hens attacked her, causing a loud ruckus that brought my husband out of his home office (I wasn’t home) and forced him to wade into the melee to save her. His inexperience with fowl (I don’t think he’s touched a chicken before or since!) caused a lot of flapping and squawking, and, as he described it to me later, caused Otto to just sort of forget himself for a moment. He jumped up onto my husband, mesmerized by the wildly flapping chicken that my husband was attempting to carry to and fling back over the neighbor’s fence. When my husband, shocked, exclaimed, “OTTO! NO!” Otto looked embarrassed and immediately slunk away. He’s not made an error in avian judgment since.
I was worried that it was going to take a bit more to keep the chickens safe from my new puppy, Woody – until one of the now-mature hens took puppy-training into her own hands . . . er, beak.
Woody likes to walk around their pen and stare at the hens, an activity I call him away from whenever I catch him at it. I’ve given him the “No! Off!” speech at least a dozen times; he’s much more persistent than Otto ever was in the face of this message, and I’ve worried that I may never be able to allow the chickens to walk around loose with impunity again. But we’ll see; there has been a potentially game-changing event.
This morning, I was washing dishes and saw Woody standing, staring, just outside the chicken yard, his nose pressed against the chicken-wire. I was just about to rap on the kitchen window and call to him when I saw one of the hens TROT toward the fascinated puppy and PECK him right on the end of his nose through the fence! He yelped in surprise and pain, and ran from the pen with his tail tucked between his legs. A perfectly timed correction, delivered at just the right time in his as-yet-inexperienced life – and one that had nothing to do with me, that he won’t/can’t associate with me.
I can’t wait for tomorrow, to see if he will avoid the chicken pen, or go back to investigate some more. Life with a puppy is never dull!
Not long after my husband and I bought our house in 2006, we were introduced to another couple who, unbeknownst to us, shared our home address: a pair of skunks. They had a den under the house, and emerged shortly after dusk to wander through the neighborhood, foraging for fallen fruit from ornamental and backyard fruit trees, digging for grubs and worms in freshly watered lawns, and helping themselves to cat food on various porches where some people feed cats (feral and otherwise).
We attempted to seal them out from under the house, but they kept digging under the foundation. I bought one of those motion-activated sprinklers, that would kick on if anything crossed its path, and mostly managed to wet my husband or myself, when we went to take out the trash and forgot it was on. We consulted with a “pest” service that would trap and kill them, but didn’t like anything about that solution and declined. I actually used a cat trap and trapped one, illegally (and without incident, by the way) releasing it in the wildlife area a few miles away. But I kept saying to my husband, “They aren’t going to move away until we get a dog!”
When we first moved here, we were dogless. My “heart dog” Rupert had passed away a couple years before, and I had just turned over a long-haired Chihuahua, inherited from one sister, to our other sister, who has a thing for little dogs. I wanted another dog, badly, but I had to have my husband’s buy-in, since I was commuting a long distance and wasn’t home a lot. He really didn’t want to be responsible for a dog when I wasn’t home, so we were at an impasse for some time. Our second summer here, though, the digging the skunks did in the lawn and garden escalated. My husband finally agreed that it was time to get a dog to help encourage the skunks to relocate.
We got Otto in the summer of 2008. He was eager to join our anti-skunk campaign – that is, until he got skunked twice. And to this day, when he sees skunks, he will bark, but he will NOT advance on them.
I think this is a sign of his superior intellect. Some dogs get skunked again and again and again, and never seem to connect that stinging sensation in their eyes and nose and throat (nor all those baths) with that funny-looking cat that doesn’t run. Otto got the spray in his eyes and face the first time, and just a glancing mist the second time, and he has retained that knowledge to this day: he doesn’t mess with skunks at all anymore.
The skunks finally did move out from under the house. Maybe it was because I had broken up their family by removing the dad or mom (whomever it was, he or she was a big, mature skunk). Or maybe having a dog patrolling around the yard, even at a safe distance, was enough to get them to move down the street to someone else’s house. They definitely are still around though, and on mornings like this, when the breeze that accompanies the sunrise carries a strong skunk odor from somewhere on our block, Otto will invariably come inside the house and approach our bedside, whining with concern about the nearby skunks. I understand that Otto is simply letting us know that a skunk is out there; but my husband cracks jokes. “Don’t worry, Otto, we’ll protect you from those scary skunks!” However, he can’t deny there aren’t any more holes in the lawn, and I haven’t had to use the magic skunk-scent-erasing formula to bathe Otto since that first summer. So it’s all worked out.
If I had to name my puppy’s most annoying trait, I’d have to say it’s “fooling around” with my older dog, Otto.
What do I mean by this? A person who wasn’t familiar with dog behavior would be likely to say that Woody is pestering my older dog. He jumps up into Otto’s face, licking and flopping around, and generally acting like a fool. The more he does it, the more irritated Otto gets. Otto may start out with his tail wagging, standing in one place and turning his head away, trying to ignore the puppy’s foolishness. Within a few seconds, though, he will start baring his teeth and growling at the puppy in a fearsome manner, until they are either interrupted (by me), or by Otto abruptly deciding enough is enough and flattening the puppy with a roar and a lot of snapping teeth.
Truthfully, Otto doesn’t actually flatten Woody, although that’s how it looks. If you watch carefully (and I have been), Woody throws himself on the ground, in an act of active submission. When the moment plays itself out without interruption, Otto will stand over Woody’s wiggling, lip-licking form for a moment, as if to say, “Seriously! Stop it!”
Does Woody have a death wish? Why would he do this several times a day?
“Fooling around” is the phrase behaviorists use to describe one of the dog’s most common indicators of stress; it’s right up there with fight and flight, in terms of “top five things that a dog might do when stressed.” Otto is clearly the leader of my little pack of dogs, and his mere presence nearby exerts a powerful influence on the most junior member of the family. Woody is both drawn to Otto and mildly afraid of him, and the combination seems to trigger moments of this over-the-top obsequiousness.
When we invite them to live with us, we ask dogs to mute – or at least, turn way down – much of their natural, normal way of relating to each other. Their noises, facial expressions, and behavior can appear to us humans as very dramatic – but the drama is meant to forestall actual violence. It wouldn’t make any sense for animals in a highly social group to genuinely hurt each other when they squabble on a day-to-day basis over resources like food, toys, the most comfortable spot in the room, or proximity to an owner. So, while I understand that Woody’s exuberant “sucking up” to Otto and Otto’s dramatic “Knock it off! Go find something else to do!” are natural and normal behaviors, things they have to do as they work out the intricacies of their canine relationship, I still find it annoying. It may be natural and normal for dogs, but it seems to be equally natural and normal for humans to be uncomfortable with sounds of growling, snarling, and roaring/snapping.
Woody is maturing day by day, and as he gains self-control and confidence, these little flurries of animated canine behavior are slowly giving way to more subtle interactions. Now, more often than not, Otto can walk into a room and Woody will acknowledge the senior dog with just a few flips of his tail and a lowered head, with low ears and a flicking tongue. I’m glad my bully breed puppy is showing appropriate deference to our pack leader, but I’ll also be happy when he’s completely confident in this role and the “fooling around” behavior stops.
A colleague sent me this link to a video of famed BASE jumper Dean Potter flying off a cliff wearing a “wingsuit” with his dog, Whisper.
I had seen the video before. In fact, when I first saw it, I was tempted to write a blog post about it – but I got caught up in something else and forgot about it. At least, until the news broke that Potter and one of his best friends – but not his dog – had died in the middle of a similar wingsuit jump. Authorities aren’t certain exactly what happened, but some sort of miscalculation or errant current of air blew the adventurers into unforgiving rock. My colleague was unaware that the guy in the video had died, but when I sent her a link with a news story about his death, she was sort of horrified. “How could he risk his dog’s life like that?”
I was horrified, too – because I’m aware that the sport has a high fatality rate, a fact that no dog could ever be aware of. It begs the question: If the dog understood the concept of death, and what a risk they were taking, would she choose to go with her owner, whom she clearly adores?
Maybe. Just maybe.
As just two examples: There are bomb-sniffing dogs who accompany members of the military, and who have witnessed the horrible sight of people (and perhaps their canine compatriots) blown up before, who still choose to go out each day with their handlers. There are police dogs who have been shot by bad guys and have returned to duty with just as much vigor and enthusiasm as before.
One could argue that we risk our dogs’ lives every time we put them into a car (seat belt or no seat belt), or put them in the cargo hold of a plane, or even just walk them on leash on our city streets! (I’ll never forget this story, or get it out of my head . . . it makes me run across streets rather than walking when I’m with my dog, always.
Is it different, risking a dog’s life for mundane activities, than in the pursuit of something unique and dangerous? Is it more noble to risk a dog’s life when he’s a partner in the service of an activity that may save other human lives?
I guess we all have to decide for ourselves. What do you think?
Dr. Hershman realized that when an ear is not inflamed and not painful but full of debris or tarry exudates from a yeast or bacterial infection, flushing the ear makes sense. “If you don’t flush it out but keep applying medication on top of the debris,” she says, “you’re never going to cure the problem. But I also learned that flushing the ear is an art. You can’t simply fill the ear with otic solution and expect it to flow out by itself, taking all the debris with it. Because the dog’s ear canal forms a right angle, you just can’t get the liquid out unless you suction it gently with a bulb syringe or some kind of tube with a syringe attached.”
Flushing the ears, says Dr. Hershman, is one of the most important techniques you can learn for keeping your dog’s ears healthy. “They don’t teach this in veterinary school,” she says. “It’s something people learn by experience.”
When should the ears not be flushed? “If they’re painful, ulcerated, or bleeding,” she says, “or if there’s slimy, slippery pus in the ear or a gluten- ous, yeasty, golden yellow discharge. In any of these cases, flushing is not recommended. But if the ears are not inflamed and are simply waxy or filled with tarry exudates, flushing works well.”
The procedure begins with a mild, natural, unscented liquid soap from the health food store. Place a few drops of full-strength soap in the ear, then thoroughly massage the base of the ear. The soap is a surfactant, and it breaks up debris that’s stuck to the sides of the ear canal. From a bowl of water that’s slightly warmer than body temperature, fill a rubber bulb syringe or ear syringe, the kind sold in pharmacies for use with children or adults. Place the point of the syringe deep down in the soap-treated ear, then slowly squeeze the syringe so it releases a gentle stream of water.
“By the first or second application,” says Dr. Hershman, “you should see all kinds of debris flowing out. It’s like a waterfall. At the end of each application, hold the syringe in place so it sucks remaining water and debris up out of the ear canal. Then empty the syringe before filling it again.”
For seriously debris-filled ears, Dr. Hershman repeats the procedure three or four times, then she lets the dog shake his head before drying the ear with cotton balls and Q-tips. “I look for blood or debris,” she says, “and I check inside with the otoscope. If there’s still a lot of debris, I put more soap in, do a more vigorous massage, and flush it a few more times.
“An ear flush can be traumatic if the ear is inflamed,” she warns, “and occasionally there will be an ulcer or sore that you don’t know is there and it will bleed. That’s why you have to be careful about how you do this. You have to be vigorous but not aggressive. You don’t want to make the ear more inflamed, painful, or damaged than it was to begin with.”
After flushing the ear, Dr. Hershman applies calendula gel, a homeopathic remedy. “I put a large dab in each ear and ask the owner to do that once or twice a day for the next three days. The gel is water-soluble and very soothing. Calendula helps relieve itching and it stimulates the growth of new cells, so it speeds tissue repair.”
If the discharge in the dog’s ear is yeasty or obviously infected, Dr. Hershman skips the ear flush, instead using the following treatment.
I’m a HUGE advocate of shopping in independent pet supply stores. They are generally run by people who really care and are knowledgeable about dogs (and other small pets). They tend to carry better-quality foods, treats, toys, training products, and just about everything else than the chain pet supply stores do. (But don’t get me wrong: The giant pet supply chains are leagues better at identifying and carrying better-quality products than chain supermarkets and big box stores. I can’t think of a single product I’d buy in the pet supply aisle at a Walmart, for example.)
But there is a catch: At some of the small independent stores, it’s maybe a bit more important that you check the expiration date of any food or treat that you buy! Well-managed stores have systems in place to make sure that products that are close to or past their “best by” dates are pulled from the shelves, so that customers don’t bring home products whose fats are oxidized – gone some degree of rancid, which makes them exude a strong odor and renders them unpalatable to all but the most undiscriminating eaters. Rancid foods and treats can also upset canine tummies and cause what some vets call “bottom of the bag syndrome” – a temporary case of diarrhea and/or vomiting.
The best stores, like the San Francisco Bay area-based chain Pet Food Express, have programs in place to donate food and treats that are getting close to their best-by dates to rescues and shelters. See “What a Waste,” WDJ November 2012.
Keep in mind that naturally preserved foods (those preserved with mixed tocopherols, a.k.a., vitamin E) have shorter shelf lives than those that are preserved with artificial preservatives such as BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin. (We avoid foods that are artificially preserved, but it is undoubtedly better to feed artificially preserved foods that are not rancid than to feed naturally preserved, rancid foods.) If you buy foods that contain natural preservatives, it’s even more important to check the “best by” date.
Unfortunately, it’s easy for inventory control in any store to fail, and for products to linger on the shelves well past their “best by” dates. I recently had a bag of food in my cart and was halfway to the cash register before I remembered to check the date on the bag – and was I glad I did! It was six months past its “best by” date!
But I was so excited to see one of my favorite training treats (Stella and Chewy’s freeze dried “Meal Mixers”) in an independent store in a town about 60 miles from my home (I was visiting my sister-in-law and niece), that I failed to check the date … and when I opened the bag so I could load up my bait bag an hour before Woody’s most recent puppy kindergarten class, I was super disappointed to see that the normally flaky, puffy “nuggets” (easily smooshed into two or three treats in the hand, making them easy to use for reinforcing several behaviors, and super healthy) were hardened – like popcorn that had been left out for weeks. I checked the date on the bag, and d’oh! They passed their “best by” date months and months ago – and probably should have been sold months and months before that!
The worst part is that because I was shopping so far from home, I can’t immediately take them back for an exchange! And at $20 a bag, it’s a costly mistake. I’ll get back there in the next couple of weeks, and bring my receipt, but it’s not quite as compelling to a store manager to bring something back that you bought weeks ago versus just a couple days ago. How can she know that I didn’t buy some newer treats from her, and am trying to get a credit for some old treats I’ve had around for months? And honestly, I was more bummed about having to scramble for treats before class than I am about having to go back to that store – I still really like that store! I just will look at the labels more carefully.
One of the many things I love about today’s dog training world is that now, thanks to our culture’s paradigm shift toward positive reinforcement-based training, a lot more people are having fun teaching their dogs to do tricks. Once a mere afterthought in training, fun is now taking center stage as more trainers offer classes in “just” tricks, and encourage their clients to get creative with the behaviors they teach their dogs. In fact, there are even canine titles to be earned in tricks! Kyra Sundance, a stunt dog trainer/performer and author, offers five levels of Trick Dog titles through her Do More With Your Dog program, from Novice Trick Dog to Trick Dog Champion.
We have gone far beyond the “Sit, Shake, Sit Pretty, Roll Over” list of basic tricks, although these are still favorites with many dog owners. Today’s trick-trained dog can play an electronic keyboard, roll himself up in a blanket, put bottles in a recycling bin, and much more. Here are some of my favorite creative tricks that you can teach your dog. All you need to get started are your dog, a clicker (or verbal marker), treats, and any props your chosen trick entails.
Leg Weaves
For this trick, your dog weaves in and out of your legs every time you take a step forward. No props are needed for this one, and it’s a pretty easy trick for most dogs.
– Start with your dog sitting at your left side. Put your right foot forward.
– To lure, put a treat in your right hand and offer it to your dog under your thigh, behind your right leg. As he moves toward the treat, pull it back away from him so he follows it under your leg. Click and treat. (He should move across in front of you.)
– Put your left foot forward and repeat the action with the treat in your left hand this time. Or, you can ask him to target to your hand or a target stick held behind your leg, rather than using a lure.
– If he’s hesitant to follow the lure or target under your leg, toss the treat behind you as he starts under, until he’s moving more easily – then have him follow the lure or target.
– As soon as he’s moving smoothly under your legs, add your cue, and fade the lure or target. Eventually you will only need to cue the first step – after that your steps forward become the cue for him to continue weaving. Look – you’re dancing with your dog!
If you want to use a target stick for this trick, teach your dog to target! See “Utilizing Target Training,” WDJ January 2007.
Check out this video by San Diego, California, trainer Emily Larlham, owner of Dogmantics dog training and the Kikopup Youtube channel, showing how she teaches a dog to do leg weaves.
Say Your Prayers
This trick is cute: On cue, your dog goes to a bench, sits, puts his paws up on the bench, then drops his nose between his paws as if he’s saying his prayers.
– Have your dog sit in front of his prayer bench. Encourage him to put his paws on the bench; he will probably stand up to do this. That’s okay! Click and treat when his paws are on the bench.
– While he is standing with his paws on the bench, ask him to sit. He will probably try to remove his paws from the bench in order to sit. That’s okay! Click and treat for any movement toward a sit before his paws come off the bench.
– Alternate repetitions of both behaviors (paws on the bench from a sit, and sit while standing with paws on the bench). As you gradually shape each behavior they will eventually meet in the middle and he will be able to sit with his paws on the bench.
– When he will remain seated with his paws on the bench, hold a treat in front of his nose with one hand to keep him in place while you move a second treat underneath and between his front legs with your other hand.
– Lure his nose down with your first treat until his nose reaches your second treat, then lure his nose down slightly between his front legs. Click (or use your verbal marker) and treat.
– When you can easily lure his nose between his legs, add your verbal cue, “Say your prayers!” and gradually lure less and less, until he can say his prayers on cue.
Pups in a Blanket
For this more challenging trick, your dog lies down on a blanket, grasps the corner of the blanket in his mouth, and rolls over to wrap himself up. For the best success, teach rolling over and blanket-grasping separately, then put them together.
Roll Over:
– Ask your dog to lie down. Kneel or squat next to your dog.
– Use a treat in your hand to encourage your dog to roll flat onto one side (if he is already rolled onto one hip be sure to continue in the same direction) by moving the lure in a “C” shape toward his ribcage, then up to his spine. Repeat until he easily moves into the flat-on-his-side position. (I call this position “Relax.”)
– From “Relax,” encourage your dog to turn tummy side up using your treat lure. Place the lure at the end of his nose and move it up in a half-circle above his head. As soon as he shifts so his legs lift off the floor ever so slightly, click and treat. Gradually increase the amount of the arc until he is turning onto his back, and then all the way over. Once the dog passes the point of equilibrium, gravity takes over and the roll just happens.
– Go slowly; some dogs get a little worried when they feel themselves rolling over. Make sure your dog is comfortable at each new step before asking him to roll a little farther.
Grasp the Blanket:
– Have your dog lie down on the blanket. If he already knows a “Take it!” cue, offer him the corner of the blanket and ask him to take it. If he doesn’t, encourage him to play with the corner of the blanket, then click and treat any time he puts his mouth on it.
– When he’ll grasp the blanket with his teeth, add your “Take it!” cue. Gradually increase duration until he is holding the blanket in his teeth for several seconds.
– Alternatively, you can fold a treat into the corner of the blanket and click and treat when he grabs it with his teeth. Add your cue, and gradually increase duration until he is holding the blanket in his teeth for several seconds.
Combine the Behaviors:
– When he knows both behaviors well, put them together. Start by having him lie down on the blanket.
– Give him your “Take it!” cue, and when he is holding the blanket in his teeth, cue him to “Roll Over.”
– If he keeps hold of the blanket and rolls over, click, treat and party!
– It is more likely that at first he will probably drop the blanket and roll over. Watch him closely, and click just before he drops the blanket. If he drops it before he rolls over at all, just try again.
– Repeat this step, gradually increasing duration of the blanket hold until he will keep it in his teeth while he rolls all the way over. Pup’s in a blanket!
6 More Dog Tricks!
1. Take a Bow: Use the food lure (or touch target) as if asking for a “down.” Move the food just a little at first, so only his front end lowers. Gradually move the treat lower and lower until the front end is all the way down but the hind end is still up.
2. Crawl: Have the dog lie down, then move the lure or target forward slowly, close to the ground, to encourage the dog to follow it without getting up.
3. Jump Over (or Through) My Arm(s): Kneel facing a wall, two feet away, with your dog on your left side. Touch the fingers of your left hand to the wall, arm low. Use the lure or target in your right hand to encourage him to jump over your arm. With your dog on your right side, switch arms and do it again.
4. Spin/Twirl: Move the lure or target in a slow circle at the dog’s nose level, so the dog can follow. Use different words for left- and right-hand circles.
5. Side Pass: With the dog standing in front of you, use a lure or target to keep her nose centered in front of you and slowly step sideways.
6. Dance: Hold the lure or target the height of the dog’s body length off the ground. When the dog stands on her hind legs, move the lure/target as if asking for a spin.
Other Trainer Favorites
Some of my trainer friends shared their favorite dog tricks with me:
Valerie Balwanz, PMCT, CPDT-KA Pampered Pets, Charlottesville, VA
Photo courtesy of Valerie Balwanz
“My favorite thing to teach the dogs in my tricks class is to hit buzzers that make funny sounds with their paws. Some of the buzzers make animal sounds, mooing like a cow or crowing like a rooster. Others make cartoon-like ‘Boing!’ or honking sounds. Once the dogs have mastered this trick, the classroom explodes into a cacophony of amusing sounds. This gets everyone laughing.”
You can also do this trick using talking buttons, like the Staples “That Was Easy” Button.
Balwanz recommends using shaping to teach this trick. (See “Fun Training Techniques,” WDJ March 2006.) But first, make sure the dog isn’t concerned about the sound the buzzer makes. Push the buzzer, feed a treat. Repeat this several times and watch for signs of stress. For dogs who are concerned about the sound, use a push-on night light in place of the buzzer. Then start shaping:
– Click and treat for any movement toward the buzzer. This could include looking toward the buzzer, leaning toward the buzzer, or actually moving toward the buzzer.
– When you are starting to get consistent movement toward the buzzer, raise your criteria, and only click/treat for any foot movement toward the buzzer.
– When you are getting lots of foot movement, select which foot you want the dog to use and then only click/treat specific right- or left-foot movement toward the buzzer.
– When you are seeing consistent movement of your chosen foot, raise your criteria again, and click/treat for right-foot movements within six inches of the buzzer.
– Your next criteria might be to click/treat for right-foot movements within three inches of the buzzer.
– Then click/treat for right-foot movements within one inch of the buzzer.
– Then only click/treat for right-foot movements that touch the buzzer anywhere.
– Then only click/treat righ- foot movements that touch the buzzer on top.
– Finally, click and treat right-foot movements that touch the buzzer on top and are hard enough to make it make noise.
Once your dog performs this last step consistently, name the behavior (put it on cue). Balwanz asks her students to make up their own cue for this behavior. “My students understand that we always get behavior before we name behavior, so once their dog is hitting the buzzer, they can call it anything they like. This encourages them to be creative. I enjoy hearing the funny cues they invent!”
Following are links to various sources for buzzers and buttons. Some office supply stores sell “front desk” bells, which are also fun to use for this trick.
Sharon Messersmith, Canine Valley Training Facility, Reading, PA
Photo courtesy of Sharon Messersmith
“My favorite trick to teach dogs to play is ‘Peek-a-Boo’ between the owner’s legs,” Messersmith says. “It gets the most reaction from kids and adults when I’m doing a therapy visit or just trying to make someone laugh.”
– Stand in front of the dog with your back to him, your feet wide enough apart so the dog can put his head through your legs. Hold a treat at the dog’s nose level in front of you to lure him through your legs. Make sure you only put it far enough so he comes through to his shoulders. As the dog is walking toward the treat, mark the behavior with a click or the word, “Yes,” and treat your dog.
– Repeat the first step until your dog starts to offer the behavior a few times. Then you can start to add the cue “Peek-a-Boo” as your dog is walking between your legs, but before you mark the behavior with a click or “Yes.”
– When your dog is reliably walking through your legs (eight out of 10 tries), begin to fade the lure. Stand in front of your dog with feet apart and say, “Peek-a-Boo.” When your dog starts to walk through your legs, click or say, “Yes” and feed a treat. If your dog doesn’t walk through your legs after being cued, wait three seconds, then lure him through.
– As you continue to practice this trick, your dog will need less of a lure. Continue to fade the lure until he will do Peek-a-Boo reliably on cue. Click and treat!
Jessica Ring, PMCT, My Fantastic Friend, Ellicott City, MD
“One of my favorite tricks is ‘Chill,’ in which the dog rests his chin on the ground or on some other designated surface such as someone’s lap,” Ring says. “This is a simple and great trick to teach a therapy dog, or one who is on crate rest. I taught it to my dog after he had hip replacement surgery. It’s useful in the car or to help a dog relax – and it’s also ridiculously adorable.”
To teach this trick, Ring also uses shaping:
– Start with the dog in the down position and wait for any tiny movement of the head, eyes, or ears toward the ground. Click and deliver the treat on the ground.
– Repeat several times, until you are sure your dog has caught on (you see him offering small but deliberate movement toward the ground), and then hold out for a slightly larger movement.
– Keep repeating this process over the course of multiple short sessions, until your dog is resting his chin on the ground.
– Once you get to the point where your dog’s chin is resting on the ground, click and treat after just a split second.
– After several repetitions, gradually build duration over time by waiting just a hair longer before clicking/treating. Be sure that you are clicking and treating frequently. If your dog seems to be getting frustrated or you are not clicking very frequently, back up a few steps and work there a bit longer before increasing your expectations.
Endless Possibilities
The tricks described here can get you started, and further possibilities are endless! Ask whether your local dog trainer teaches a trick class. Search Youtube for “dog tricks” to see more dogs doing more tricks than you ever thought possible. Check out Kyra Sundance’s books – 101 Dog Tricks: Step-By-Step Activities to Engage, Challenge, and Bond With Your Dog and 101 Dog Tricks, Kids Edition, both available from Dogwise.com. But most important, remember to have fun training your dog. If you do that . . . it’s all tricks!
Author Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, is WDJ’s Training Editor. She and her husband Paul and their four dogs live in Fairplay, Maryland, site of her Peaceable Paws training center, where Pat offers dog-training classes and courses for trainers. Miller is also the author of many books on positive training. Her two most recent books are Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance at a First-Class Life, and How to Foster Dogs: From Homeless to Homeward Bound.
Stunt dog trainer/performer and author Kyra Sundance has created an entire program around teaching dogs to do tricks. Trainers can become Certified Trick Dog Instructors (CTDI), and dog owners can earn titles at five levels by having a witness sign the Trick Dog Performance Form found on Sundance’s website. To achieve the various levels, you simply need your dog to perform enough tricks from Sundance’s Tricks List to meet the requirements for that level:
Novice Trick Dog (NTD): Demonstrate 15 tricks (intermediate and advanced tricks count as two tricks).
Intermediate Trick Dog (ITD): First earn your NTD, then demonstrate 12 tricks from an intermediate or higher skill level (advanced and expert tricks count as two tricks).
Advanced Trick Dog (ATD): First earn your ITD, then demonstrate five advanced or expert tricks.
Expert Trick Dog (ETD): First earn your ATD, then demonstrate five expert tricks.
Trick Dog Champion (TDC): First earn your ETD, then submit a video that meets the requirements spelled out on the Do More With Your Dog website.
For Sundance’s Tricks Lists and more about her Trick Dog titling program, visit her website here.
All I could hear was the buzz of a thousand bees as I parted my way through a deep thicket of Heracleum lanatum, a tall, broad-leaved member of the parsley family commonly known as “cow parsnip.” The big, umbrella-like white flower clusters seem to attract every insect imaginable. The plant is also arguably edible, most notably the root. I say, “arguably” edible, because the flavor is downright overbearing – like bitter carrot tops that have been intensified a hundredfold in flavor, then mixed with a pinch of soap. But that’s just my opinion. Much of the wildlife in these mountains relish the flowering tops, and later in the summer, the seeds. On this day I had noticed that several stems had been chewed, five feet above the ground, making me cautious of spooking a moose, which sometimes nap behind the cool cover of the plants. Maybe a moose with a toothache, I think to myself, smiling as I push through the plants. Although not a food choice for me, I do occasionally use Cow Parsnip as medicine. The unripe seeds possess a unique gum-numbing quality when chewed, making them useful for toothaches and other discomforts of the mouth.
But today my quarry is one of my all-time favorites: dandelions. I enter a clearing where the deep, moist soil always yields the best dandelion roots on the mountain, big juicy ones that are easy to dig. Reaching my target patch, I noticed that a few of these plants had also been chewed . . . but judging from the footprints, it looked like the diner in this case was a coyote. I stopped for a moment to take notes and ponder: what may be one animal’s food might serve as medicine for another.
Dandelion, of course, serves as both. Rich with vitamins, protein, iron, and other minerals, dandelion greens are indeed one of nature’s superfoods. The flowers are rich with lecithin, an essential nutrient that plays critical roles in fat metabolism and kidney, liver, and gallbladder function. The roots, the target of my efforts, contain prebiotic inulin (which feeds and maintains healthy digestive flora), strong antioxidant chemistries, and myriad other compounds that combine to make the herb one of my favorite liver tonics.
Dandelion is just one of many useful weeds that may already be flourishing in your own backyard. But before you grab your trowel and start digging, I wish to provide you with a general idea of what to expect from these amazing herbal allies: what they are, what they do, where they stand between food and drugs, and the best ways to use them.
Between Foods & Drugs
Medicinal herbs are simply plants that possess healing properties that extend beyond those that are normally found in most whole, healthy foods. Many herbs are quite nutritious. Parsley, a smaller domesticated cousin of Cow Parsnip, is a perfect example. It is certainly one of nature’s superfoods, containing impressive amounts of vitamins K, C, and A; potassium, iron, and myriad other essential nutrients. It also contains limonene, eugenol, alpha-thujene, apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, luteolin, and various other chemical constituents that make the plant useful in a broad variety of medicinal applications.
Parsley leaves and roots are valued for their for antibacterial (bacteria-inhibiting) and diuretic (urination-increasing) activities; the seeds, when brewed into a tea and cooled for use as a skin and coat rinse, can heal bites and repel fleas. It is this unique “medicinal-food” property that sets herbs apart from pharmaceutical drugs. Most conventional drugs are designed to treat the symptoms of disease; in contrast, tonic herbs – the kind I like most – work in concert with what the body is naturally designed to do for itself: stay nourished, stay healthy, and resist disease.
Dadalia | Dreamstime.com
A Tonic Against Disease
I consider myself to be a “tonic herbalist,” one who believes that the greatest potential of any herbal remedy rests with its ability to support the body’s innate mechanisms of healing. When used in this context, herbs are not expected to inhibit, bypass, or any way interfere with the body’s natural functions. Instead, they are used to support those natural functions.
For example, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are often used to suppress a fever. But from my perspective, this amounts to working against the body. I see fever as part of the body’s effort to increase peripheral circulation and boost the immune system against bacterial or viral infection. The aim of a tonic herbalist therefore, is not to suppress a fever, but to honor it. Instead of completely suppressing the body’s innate response to infection, herbalists like me use olive leaf extract, Echinacea, Astragalus, or other “immunotonic” herbs to enhance immune system functions and thereby reduce the body’s need to produce fever in the first place.
Unfortunately, not all herb users think this way. Many will reach for herbal tinctures, teas, pills, or powders with hope of replacing a conventional drug with a healthier, more natural alternative. But such use will often lead to disappointment. Most herbs are much weaker in their abilities to suppress symptoms, leading the would-be user to become discouraged and eventually abandon the herbal alternative altogether.
With that said, if you always remember that the primary purpose of using herbs is to support the body’s natural mechanisms of healing, you will have a much better chance of finding the lasting results you are looking for. Then, I recommend that you begin your journey into the world of herbal medicine by employing the plants that grow at your feet, or perhaps those that are already waiting in the kitchen spice cabinet. Here are a few of my other favorites that you might find there…
Chamomile
This is a gentle and effective home remedy that can be safely used in a broad variety of applications. It is easy to access in bulk dried form or in tea bags, and it is also very easy to grow. This is one of the first herbs I reach for in cases of digestive upset that arise from nervousness and hyper-excitability. Dozens of human and animal studies have given us solid information about how chamomile’s chemical compounds contribute to its effectiveness.
For example, when used topically or internally, the apigenenin, chamazulene (and its precursor, matricin), and other volatile oil constituents of chamomile flowers have been shown to help relieve muscle spasms. In the digestive tract, chamomile eases nervous spasms, helps to expel gas, aids in the production of bile to improve digestion, and reduces inflammation throughout. All of these activities combine into an excellent remedy for chronic or acute gastric disorders, including various forms of inflammatory bowel disease.
For these applications the cooled tea can be fed at rate of one to four tablespoons for each 30 pounds of your companion’s body weight, simply by adding it to his drinking water.
Fennel
Fennel seed serves as a gentle anti-gas and antispasmodic agent that can be added directly to your dog’s food. In acute cases – such those which occur when too many goodies are consumed as a result of human weakness at the Thanksgiving dinner table – fennel seed can work wonders. The seeds can be fed directly with food – up to a teaspoon for dogs. However, a cooled tea works even better for this purpose.
Use one teaspoon of the fresh or dried seeds (fresh are better) in eight ounces of boiling water, and steep until cool. The tea can be fed at a rate of two to four tablespoons for each 20 pounds of the animal’s body weight, or it can be added to drinking water as generously as the animal will tolerate.
Heebyj | Dreamstime.com
Rosemary
This is an extremely useful herb. At the top of its medicinal attributes are its “carminative” properties; it relieves flatulence (gas)! and other digestive problems that are secondary to general nervousness, excitability, or irritability.
Rosemary also contains borneol and other volatile oils that are known to exert antispasmodic activity upon the heart and other smooth-muscle tissues. This not only helps moderate cardiac arrhythmia, but also strengthens heart function, making rosemary especially useful in older dogs. The rosmarinic acid contained in the plant is also believed to have pain-killing properties.
For any of these applications, a starting dose of 0.5 ml. (about 1/8 tsp.) of a rosemary tincture can be given orally for each 20 pounds of a dog’s body weight, up to three times daily.
Most of thyme’s medicinal activity is attributable to its volatile oil constituents, thymol and carvacrol. Thymol is a very good antiseptic for the mouth and throat; useful for fighting gingivitis in dogs. In fact, thyme is used as the active ingredient in many commercial toothpaste and mouthwash formulas.
Combined with thyme’s infection-fighting qualities are antitussive and expectorant properties, making the herb useful for raspy, unproductive coughs that are secondary to fungal or bacterial infection. Thyme also helps ease bronchial spasms that are related to asthma and other respiratory problems.
A glycerin tincture, or an alcohol tincture that has been sweetened with honey, serves well for most internal applications: 1/4 of a teaspoon (1 ml) for each 30 pounds of the dog’s body weight, fed as needed up to twice daily. A cooled tea will work too, provided it has been brewed with near-boiling water to draw out the volatile oil constituents. For the above applications, use one teaspoon for dogs, fed directly into the mouth two to three times daily.
For infections of the mouth or as a preventative against gingivitis, a thyme tincture or a very strong thyme tea can be directly applied to the gums or infected sites with a swab.
In the digestive tract, thyme is a useful carminative and antispasmodic agent; use in cases of dyspepsia, irritable bowel, and colitis. It also helps expel parasites, especially hookworms. In these cases, the dried or fresh herb can be mixed into the dog’s food – one teaspoon per pound of food fed.
Taken in the form of tea or tincture, thymes serves as an antimicrobial in the urinary tract, as well as a mildly astringent tonic that is said to be useful for urinary incontinence.
Used as a skin rinse, a thyme tea or an oil infusion can help eliminate fungal or bacterial infections of the skin.
Greg Tilford is the author of five books on botanical medicine for animals, including the acclaimed Herbs for Pets: The Natural Way to Enhance Your Pet’s Life (i-5 Publications, 2nd ed. 2009). Tilford is a charter member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Animal Supplements Council (NASC), and founded and currently chairs the Animal Products Committee of the American Herbal Products Association, with a mission to promote and protect responsible commerce of herb products intended for use in animals. Tilford also lectures about herbs to veterinarians and owners worldwide.
We’ve all heard the saying, “a tired dog is a good dog,” but more isn’t always better when it comes to physical activity. If you’re trying to use exercise to help your dog relax the rest of the day, walking smarter, not farther, can help you meet your goal. It also creates wonderful opportunities for strengthening dog-owner relationships.
There’s one question I’d like you to consider every time you snap on your dog’s leash and head out for a walk: What kind of walk are you taking?
I have various goals for my dog walks at different times. Sometimes my walk is more about meeting an exercise goal for myself, or an opportunity to socialize with a friend, and I bring my dog along so he can benefit from the exercise as well. For those walks, my focus is mostly self-centered, as I will myself to push farther up an inclined trail or enthusiastically chat with a friend.
While walking, I might use a no-pull harness to manage my dog’s leash pulling (since I know I’ll likely be too distracted to train), and my dog and I are largely in our own separate worlds as we walk. Of course, I still keep an eye on the environment, as it’s my responsibility to ensure our safety. Fortunately, my dog doesn’t have any major reactivity issues I need to be alert for and prepared to suddenly train through or manage. I might ask for a sit here and there, but largely, he and I are walking together, yet each doing our own thing.
Most of the time, though, my walks are far more interactive. I don’t want to take my dog for a walk; I want to enjoy a walk with my dog. Dogs as a species were bred to work cooperatively with humans, and training time is a wonderful way to honor that evolutionary history, while helping to meet your dog’s need for human interaction. Time spent training together can strengthen the connection and bond you share with your dog. Training while on a walk allows you to practice a variety of known skills, and working away from home helps your dog learn to deal with real-world distractions.
“It takes energy to solve puzzles,” says Amy Cook, PhD, of Full Circle Dog Training in Oakland, California. “Training on walks means our dogs have to concentrate more and work to filter out distractions, and that’s costly in energy.” In other words, thinking is hard work. The more your dog thinks, the more energy he uses.
Even a simple walk around the block is full of plenty of opportunities to have fun while asking your dog to think through some simple training challenges. When I head out for a training walk, I still give my dog some “personal time” where he’s allowed to sniff and explore on a loose leash. That’s important, too. Roughly one-third of a dog’s brain is dedicated to olfaction; it feels unfair to deny them a good sniff-fest!
When you’re ready, there are lots of ways to throw some training into the mix, while keeping the walk light-hearted and enjoyable for the animals on both ends of the leash.
Make the fundamentals fun! Incorporate basic skills practice into the walk:
– Practice a quick response to your dog’s name. When he turns and looks at you, sometimes mark and reward on the fly as you keep moving, and sometimes mark and back up a few steps, encouraging your dog toward you, then deliver several small treats (one after another, rather than a handful at once), paired with praise and petting.
– Play “Red Light, Green Light!” This children’s game is a great way to work on sits and downs. At random intervals during your walk, ask your dog to “sit” or “down.” This can be adapted easily to your dog’s level of training, from using a lure to help get the behavior, to challenging your dog to be ready to respond to verbal-only cues when he least expects it.
Vary the challenge by sometimes specifying where you’d like your dog to sit or down. For example, if he likes to swing out in front of you, work on keeping him parallel to you, in heel position. Sometimes vary your pace just before you ask for a sit or down. Can your dog contain his excitement and pull off a quick sit or down after you excitedly run forward 10 steps? Try changing sides. If he’s used to working on your left, can he walk on your right (“Green light!”) and sit or lie down (“Red light!”) on that same side, without trying to drift back to the familiar left side?
These little changes might sound easy, but remember that dogs can be slow to generalize a behavior. Even subtle changes can feel like a totally different behavior to your dog at first.
– Recall Challenges. People often assume they need an extra-long leash in order to practice what looks like a real-life recall, but all of my recall training is done on a regular six-foot leash. The hardest part of coming when called is not the distance the dog travels back to the handler. The hardest part of coming when called is choosing to leave an exciting distraction in favor of returning to the handler – whether he’s six feet or 60 feet away.
After I’ve spent time teaching my dog to associate his recall word with an amazing party of treats, praise, petting, and play, and have spent a fair amount of time practicing at home (where it’s easiest to do), I start challenging my dog to come away from distractions while exploring on a walk.
The first few times I introduce this challenge, I warm up the recall behavior with a few practice sessions that closely match how I trained the behavior at home. Then I walk my dog up to what I think will be a relatively easy distraction, for example, the base of a tree (as opposed to a tree full of dog-mocking squirrels). While he’s sniffing, I quietly move behind him, backing up to the end of the leash. Once in position, I call my dog using his name (which I teach to mean, “Quick! Pay attention!”) and his recall word.
If he turns toward me, I immediately mark the correct choice (with the “Click!” of a clicker or a verbal marker, such as the word “Yes!”) and cheer him on as I run away, encouraging him to chase me for several steps. Then we stop and enjoy a full 30 to 60 seconds of praise, petting, and several rapid-fire treats delivered one at a time.
If the dog doesn’t immediately turn away from the distraction when I call him, I’ll quickly step in and make a funny noise to get his attention and/or lightly and playfully goose him. The instant I have his attention, I excitedly repeat the recall word as I run off and invite him to chase me. This sequence ends in an even bigger reinforcement routine than if he’d done it right all on his own.
This often puzzles people who think, “If I had to help him, why should he be rewarded?” The reason? If you had to help him, your dog is telling you he doesn’t believe you’re willing to be as much fun as he was having with the distraction. In other words, he didn’t think it was worth it to leave the distraction. Over time, the magnificence of your reinforcement is what teaches your dog that coming when called is definitely worth it. Be sure to pay well!
Note: If you find your dog frequently needs help leaving distractions, choose less-exciting distractions and revisit your early recall training in a distraction-free environment.
I try to fit at least five recall distraction trials into every walk. Walks are full of myriad opportunities for practice: Call your dog away from a prolonged sniff of a tree. Call your dog away from staring at other dogs across the park. Call your dog away from the neighbor after a quick “Hello.” You can even call your dog during the walk itself. If you’re cruising along and your dog’s focus is fully forward, surprise him with a quick recall trial. Be creative! In my opinion, learning to turn away from distractions is the single most important skill needed for developing a reliable recall – and a reliable recall might save your dog’s life some day!
– Interpersonal play. I’m a big fan of interacting with a dog through play. I love teaching tug games because they give dogs a great outlet for normal dog behaviors, while providing opportunities to practice impulse control and relinquishing a prized object. I often walk my dog with a favorite tug toy in my back pocket. He never knows when I might suddenly invite him to play a quick game of tug during a walk. Sometimes we stop walking and tug for 30 seconds, and sometimes I invite him to tug while we walk.
Many dogs enjoy playing tug games with their owners at home, but are reluctant to engage in the game away from home. For some dogs, it’s a matter of habit; they’re used to playing tug at home, not while on a walk. Some dogs are so interested in the environment that a game of tug suddenly seems less exciting. And some dogs worry when away from home, and lack the confidence needed to “let their hair down” and play.
Each case provides its own unique training challenge, but it’s well worth the effort to systematically work through the issue. Adding quick games of tug while on a walk is a great way to reward polite leash walking and correct responses to cued behaviors, while helping your dog burn additional energy.
If your dog is confident and able to focus away from home, but doesn’t enjoy tug games (or you prefer not to play tug), experiment to discover what type of interpersonal play is fun for your dog. Challenge yourself to keep your dog’s interest without using food or toys. Turn sideways and crouch down in a playful stalking gesture. Tap into his opposition reflex by gently pushing him away and encouraging him to move back into your space. Send him through your legs as you run the opposite direction and encourage him to turn and chase you. (Okay, that last one is hard to do on-leash during a walk, but it’s still fun!)
Play is a key component of building a solid relationship. For some dogs, you’ll need to build this skill at home before taking it into the world on a walk. As you practice, watch your dog’s body language, and be careful not to overwhelm him with your enthusiasm. While it might sound easy, interspecies play is a complex topic in dog training. To learn more, check out Dog Sports Skills Book 3: Play! by Denise Fenzi and Deb Jones.
– Use the environment to keep training interesting. Random objects in the environment are great for helping dogs learn to generalize behaviors while adding novelty to daily walks. Invite your dog to hop up and sit on a bus bench (for you city slickers) or a tree stump (for the rural dwellers). Practice any tricks that can be done safely on an elevated surface. Ask your dog to put his front feet on a raised object such as a drinking fountain, the bottom of a slide in the park, or the base of a tree. Hop up and walk along a raised barrier wall. Walk underneath an A-frame-style advertising sign.
Be creative as you look for new, safe ways to challenge your dog. Using objects in the environment is a great way to engage your dog’s body and brain, and is even part of a fun new sport called Dog Parkour. (For more information, check out the International Dog Parkour Association, dogparkour.org.)
– Change your route to change the scenery. I live in a densely populated, busy Los Angeles suburb. When I walk out my door, I have access to several different walking routes. I make a point to not take the same route twice in a row. The change of scenery keeps things interesting for everybody. A familiar walk is always better than no walk, but watch your dog while walking in a new environment; you’ll likely find his senses are in overdrive as he takes in the novel sights, sounds, and smells. Processing all the new stimuli is tiring work!
If your immediate neighborhood options are limited, consider jumping in the car and driving to the nearest shopping center. Shopping centers offer a wealth of novel stimuli to dazzle your dog’s senses, as well as urban distractions around which to train.
With a little forethought and creativity, you’ll soon find that training walks set you on a path not just toward better cardiovascular health, but a stronger, more interactive relationship with your dog!
Dogs who struggle to focus on their owners when away from home usually do so for one of two reasons – either the dog is too distracted by the environment, or he’s under the influence of anxiety or fear.
With anxiety and fear, the dog’s body language tells a powerful story. His posture might be slinky – head low, tail tucked, ears pinned back. His pupils might be dilated, with the whites of his eyes visible. He might pant, even if it’s not hot. He might sniff excessively, yawn repeatedly, or lick his lips. His movements could be slow, almost catatonic, or fast and erratic as though he’s trying to escape. Some dogs jump up on their owners in a way that is best described as “clingy,” while others become hyperactive and appear to lack training and be totally out of control. Fearful dogs can also lunge at the trigger (people, other dogs, etc.) as a way of trying to keep the “scary thing” at bay.
In either case, time and patience often go a long way toward helping your dog achieve a mental state that’s more compatible with a training walk. Rather than hit the ground running (or walking), pick a spot not far from your front door and just stand there like a tree. The curious dog is free to sniff around at the radius of his leash. Don’t ask for attention, but reward generously anytime your dog happens to check in with you. Your reward should look dramatically different from when you patiently stand there watching him sniff or look around. Your face should light up in a smile as you back up a step or two, drawing your dog toward you, and feeding several pea-size treats (like, 10!), one piece at a time. After the last treat, release your dog to “go sniff.” Plant your feet and wait for the next time he glances your way. Have another 10-cookie party. (If your worried about too many treats, incorporate pieces of kibble subtracted from his daily ration.)
Do this two or three times as a warm-up before starting the walk. The idea is to give your dog time to engage in a limited version of what he wants – the ability to sniff and look around – while also letting him realize that his choice to interact with you pays quite well. For some dogs, this helps jump-start an ability to focus on the handler during a walk, and the rewards that continue throughout the walk help build and maintain focus. (To learn more about developing your dog’s choice to focus on you, see “It’s All in Your Dog’s Eyes,” WDJ February 2016.)
Especially fearful dogs may benefit from quiet visits to new places, with no expectations. Their sniffing and exploration (to whatever degree they are comfortable) are driven less by curiosity and more by a need to realize nothing bad will happen. Don’t press these dogs to perform specific behaviors (as discussed in the main article); they can’t successfully think about attention or cued behaviors if they are worried. Support your dog with calm praise, slow, relaxed petting, and treats (if she will accept them). You can’t reinforce the fear – it’s a feeling, not a behavior. Your calm reassurance can help your dog relax, while treats build positive associations with the “scary place.”
Many owners of fearful dogs are concerned that if they give their dogs treats or praise, they will reinforce the dog’s fearful behaviors; it’s a common misconception. Let’s say you’re nervous about public speaking, and you’re about to give an important presentation. As you head to the boardroom, your friend stops you in the hallway. “Hey, you’re gonna be great. You’ve got this!” she says, as she gives you a reassuring smile and a hug. Then she slips a Godiva chocolate bar into your suit pocket! Did she just reinforce your fear of public speaking, or did you appreciate her kind and thoughtful actions?
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies.
